Being Annoying Now Legal in New York

Until this week, communicating “in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm” was a felony in New York. On Tuesday, the state Court of Appeals struck that statute down.

Ron Kuby had some choice words about the decision. The New York Times explains:

The ruling, rendered by the Court of Appeals in Albany in a near-unanimous decision, is expected to have a broad effect on hundreds of harassment cases currently being prosecuted in the city. Ronald L. Kuby, one of the lawyers involved in the original case, called the decision a victory for “the demented and dissident, the crazies and the critical, the malcontents and the maladjusted — amen.”

The case — involving a man who set up countless false online identities to go after critics of his father, a University of Chicago professor — is worth reading about in full, but the upshot is this: annoy all you want! You won’t get arrested for it. Unless, of course, the target of your annoyance is a cop.